The Olympia Africa, in partnership with Migori County, is set to establish an Olympic Africa Youth Centre facility to develop and nurture talents in readiness for the 2028 and 2032 Olympics in the USA and Australia.
The National Olympic Committee General Secretary, Francis Mutuku, said that the country wanted to identify, tap, and nurture grassroots talents to ensure that it prepares itself for future Olympic events.
The Olympia Africa identified Migori County Stadium as an ideal venue for the development of the youth centre to provide international standard training facilities for youth in the Nyanza region.
The facility will also provide sporting programmes to coaches and technical personnel to equip them with the requisite skills and knowledge in the sporting arena.
The National Olympic Committee has been training sports administrators in the latest trends in the world to help impact skills, knowledge, and experiences at the county level.
According to Francis Mutuku, decentralising the sports administration is one way of improving sports governance. He also said that decentralisation of sports will empower the sports personnel training from the lowest levels of the subcounty to tap talents at the grassroots.
Mutuku, however, noted that the development of the youth centres will enable the country to continuously feed the athletics and other Olympic sports to make Kenya a competitive country in terms of sports globally.
The Youth Centre training facility will also aim at identifying sprinters to give the country a competitive edge in the world’s biggest sporting event.
“We are known for our long-distance running, but as the world evolves, so does sports, and that is why it is important to identify and tap on youth talents that can also do sprints and other available Olympic sports,” noted Mutuku.
Migori County Secretary Oscar Olima disclosed that they have already signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Olympic Committee of Kenya about the construction and building of the Olympic Africa Youth Centre.
Olima said that the county will provide the basic facilities while the National Olympic Committee will provide funding and technical assistance to improve the sporting talents in the region.
The International Olympia Africa Foundation umbrella, under the sponsorship of the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA), seeks to improve the living conditions of the most disadvantaged through the funding of activities organised around four key areas of sport, culture, education, and socio-economic initiatives to develop youth across the African continent.
By Geoffrey Makokha
